Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	work_n	world_n	wretch_n	28	3	8.7950	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A00686	A briefe conference betwixt mans frailtie and faith wherein is declared the true vse, and comfort of those blessings pronounced by Christ in the fifth of Matthew, that euery Christian man and woman ought to make and take hold of in their seuerall tentations and conflicts: laide downe in this plaine order of dialogue, to helpe, if it please God, the conceit and feeling of the simplest. By Geruase Babington.	Babington, Gervase, 1550-1610.	1584 (1584)	STC 1082; ESTC S108359	56,099	166

windowes of heauen and powre his mercies out vpon your La. the Lorde confirme you in all good workes giue you a true sight of this vaine world make your heart shake at his iudgementes melt with a fruitefull feeling of grace assured to holie life and the Lord to profite make you thinke you euer heare that voice ARISE YOV DEADE AND COME VNTO IVDGEMENT and yet in faith to saie with cheerefull heart COME LORDE IESVS COME QVICKLIE So be it London this first of December 1583. Your Honors most humble bounden to death Geruase Babington A Conference betwixt mans Frailtie and Faith Frailtie O Wicked worlde and wretched state I stand in O heauy hart sorowing soule how should I comfort you I haue it not I see it not I feele it not what any way might ioie mee and howe then can I giue it you The contrary I see in fullest weight and measure and wo is me ten thousand times that euer I sawe this light yea let the day euen perish wherin I was borne and the night when it was saide there is a manchilde conceiued Let that daie be darknesse let not God regard it from aboue neither let the light shine vppon it But let darkenesse and the shadow of death staine it let the cloud remaine vpon it and let them make it fearefull as a bitter day let darkenesse possesse that night let it not be ioined vnto the dayes of the yeare nor let it come into the accounts of the moneths Yea desolate be that night and let no ioy be in it Let the stars of that twilight be dimme through darkenesse of it let it looke for light but haue none neither let it see y e dawning of the daie because it shut not vp the doores of my mothers wombe nor hid sorrowe from my eies Why died I not in the birth or why died I not when I came out of the wombe Why did the knees preuent me and why did I sucke the brests For so shoulde I nowe haue lien and beene quiet I should haue slept then and beene at rest Or why againe was I not hid as an vntimely birth either as infants which haue not seene the light Woe is me I liue woe is mee I doe not die and wo I feare much more when ended is my course Faith Why Frailtie what in the name of God meaneth this fearful impatiencie or what case can there be in the life of man and woman so vncomfortable as that in regard thereof they should thus cris out Open your selfe and conceale not your griefe for the verie speaking of it shall giue some measure of ease Frailtie Alas I knowe not almost howe to doe it For my conceites doe so oppresse me and euer as I thinke of one miserie still the remembraunce of an other thrusteth it selfe so into my minde and at last the heape appeares so huge as all amazed I faint vnder the beholding of them and my cogitations are so distracted as it is not possible for me to make an orderly rehearsall of my woe Yet since I haue met with you I wil performe it as I can committing my selfe to that mercie that hath no measure and to your selfe as an instrument to applie his comfortes to me begging it euen with teares tenne thousand times at your handes I consider then that I am created heere in this worlde a reasonable creature consisting of bodie and soule both subiect to dreadfull and endlesse woe if I finde not mercie with the Lorde which I confesse vnto you I comfortablie cannot assure my self of as yet bicause the hand of God me thinke more heauily presseth me diuers waies than I imagin it would do if he loued me Faith And wherein I praie you doe you thinke you are pressed ouer heauily Pouertie the first temptation Frailtie ALas in manie things and yet God laie not my pleading with him to my charge To begin with some thing I must needes confesse vnto you that my lowe estate in the world is a maruellous temptation to me manie a time For God knowes I am poore and euen verie poore notwithstanding all my paines carke and care which is not a little My charge also is great for such an one as I am and their want as good reason bindeth is my continuall woe Yet if this were all me thinke I could wrastle with it and by Gods helpe get the victorie but these companions of pouertie are they that sting me so sore to wit disdaine and contempt both of me and mine of my doinges sayinges or any thing that proceedeth from me and that reiection which is made of me out of all meetings and companies those whisperinges that I heare reproches that I carrie euen at their handes that I little thought would haue done it and that scornefull pitying of me which often appeareth with such like For in deede if euer anie found it I finde it true that by wise Syrac was saide so long agoe There is euen as much peace betwixt the riche and the poore as betwixt Hyena and the dogge But looke howe the wilde Asse is the Lions pray so are the poore meate for the riche And looke howe the proude hate humilitie so doe the rich abhorre the poore If a rich man fall his friendes set him vp againe but when the poore falleth his friendes driue him away If a rich man offende he hath many helpers hee speaketh proude wordes and yet men iustifie him but if a poore man faile they rebuke him and though he speake wisely yet can hee haue no place When the riche man speaketh euerie man holdeth his tongue and looke what he sayeth they praise it to the clouds but if the poore man speake they say What felowe is this And if he doe amisse they will destroy him These these companions of my pouertie are the thinges that euen cut my heart a sunder and wil I nill I it breaketh euen vpon mee by force as it were to thinke that if the lord loue a man hee should neuer suffer him for want of worldly trash so despitefully to be intreated in this worlde and so generally This is but one thing that troubleth me besides which I haue manie moe but helpe me if you can ere I go anie further Faith Nay goe on vtter your gréefe fullie and then your minde wilbe the fitter to heare a great deale For otherwise you will be musing of the rest when I shall he speaking to you for your ease in this Frailtie An other verie daungerous torment then I must needes confesse is that continuall vncomfortablenesse which is still in me by reason of diuerse thinges as by a weightie and stinging sense of mine owne sinnes by sight of other mens loose course and grieuous dishonouring of God in euerie place giuing thēselues to flatterie dissembling and all manner of holowe dealing with God and man by meditation of the fierce wrath of God and most dreadfull iudgementes which assuredly hang ouer vs for these thinges

dissembling and so thereby to winne fauour to winne wealth to winne friends countenance in their dealings that me thinke I cannot stand anie longer in the innocencie of a good conscience but I must doe as they doe that I may get what they get Yet knowe I this to be diuelish but I am Frailtie by name and I feare mee by nature I shall be no lesse Thirdly when any vnquietnesse growes in towne and countrie or any iarring vnkindnesse I see such hazard in dealing betwixt them such subtilties and fetches to make a man a partie in that which his soule hated and so to trouble him and let the best be supposed I see vsually so small thanke gotten of either partie but euen the cōtrarie that I assure you I sit still and let them bate the fire that made the fire and themselues waste one an other and a thousande moe too for mee if they wil. Notwithstanding my conscience accuseth mee secretly that this is not wel doone of mee And thus indangered without and accused within me thinke my case is harde and grieuous But I wil not wearie you with any moe of my infirmities For I euen shame to shewe you these but that you are Faith a friend where you take strong and comfortable and gaue me libertie to be thus boulde with you before Faith In déede Frailtie you are when these things thus flowe vpon you yet Frailtie may you cease to be by the grace of God if you wil diligently wey what strength in the scripture is ministred against them For to begin with you first letting store of other scriptures passe to kéep me stil in this fift of Matthew euidently it may there appéere that the Lord knewe it would assault his children and therefore vttered this sentence no doubt of purpose to confirme them still that Blessed are the mercifull for they shall obtaine mercie Wherein if it were well marked there is comfort hidden euen sufficiēt against this vile suggestion For shall the Lord of heauen set a blessing vpon the head of a thing and we not be mooued with it Nay shall it not more mooue vs than al the spéeches or conceites in the worlde to the contrarie tending What though a dull heart say let all men perish so I may be safe or what though a thousand policies pricke to a priuate regarde aboue measure of priuate welbeing doe we not heare with our eares and sée with our eies the spéech of truth which shall stand when heauen and earth shal fall Blessed is the merciful Either then make God false or this blessing assured to the vertue euer And if it be assured then neuer regarde the conceits of a witlesse world but consider the vertue in it selfe and what it shall pull vppon you Then to the imagination of want that may growe by this grace and to the sting that ariseth vpon their ingratitude whom we haue béene mercifull vnto oppose the promise that followeth in the place For they shall obtaine mercie Doth a man obtaine mercie when he is in this world made worse and in the world to come no better No you know he doth not and therefore it must néedes folow that this promised mercie implieth a greater good than euer can come harme by a liberall and mercifull hande in order either in this world or in the other or in both And it hath confirmation also of scriptures beside For I haue beene yong saieth the Prophet Dauid and nowe am olde yet sawe I neuer the righteous forsaken nor his seede begging their bread But the righteous is euer mercifull and lendeth and his seede is blessed And againe in another Psalme A good man is merciful and lendeth and he shall neuer be moued but had in euerlasting remēbrance Whereby it is plaine plaine inough that let the worlde and her chickens be as churlish as they may be yet mercie is gainefull by the promise of the Lord vnto the mercifull And more should we regarde what our God liketh loueth blesseth than what with worldly wretches getteth rewarde Yet euen here also it hath his praise as you may sée by proofe in Iob and others manie though not peraduenture euer in all that are most bound vnto it Wherfore euen a thousand times we shoulde contemne this rude nature of vnreformed worldlings and lette them be as vnkinde as vngratefull and as peruerse as their corruption can make thē if the Lorde soften our hearts and giue vs this vertue of mercie our rewarde is certaine the bill of our blessednesse is signed and we as we could euer desire assured to be gainers Sincke it then Frailtie in your heart if I may obtaine anie thing of you and heare not these things without any profit Ponder the good promised in your minde and ponder the trueth of him that promiseth it God of heauen earth If the good counteruaile your hurt as a thousād times it doth your temptatiō is strengthned and if he neuer deceiued that hath giuen his worde for payment of you it is more strengthned but both of these are true and therefore God giue you vse of them the blessing of mercifulnesse to al that truely néede your helpe is assured This were inough then if you be not vtterly fallen out with mée and will credite nothing that Faith telleth you to stay your steps in this godly duety of mercie yet regarding your nature rather than the néede of the thing adde vnto al this but some litle view in your minde of the vertue it selfe in it selfe and it may be you shall finde strength increased by it Is it not in his nature thinke you an assured vertue that God maketh euer anie promise of rewarde vnto Or can it make miserable that the Lord saith maketh blessed Or is it not cause ynough to continue you euer in the practise of it that the Lord so often so earnestly and so generally to all estates commaundeth it Surely it is and therefore mercie in it nature is a most notable vertue Is it not to be honored that maketh men in whome it is so renowmed as that all ages speake and write of their names and natures for it But this vertue of mercie hath béene such to many and therefore in all truth a notable vertue For proofe of my assertion I let passe the multitude of the faithful whome either scriptures or stories or present practise as yet amongst vs honorably speake and think of And I remember you onelie of his name whose nature in this action being an heathen hath often well liked me Alexander the great Whom when one Petillus humblie besought to helpe him with some money towardes the bestowing of his daughter in mariage by and by he commaunded 50. talentes to be giuen vnto him and when the man refused so great a gift saying that ten talentes would suffise beeing tolde of it he also aunswered that it behooued a good nature not onelie to consider what an honest friende

doeth aske but what his abilitie is well to spare and giue Thinking belike which in trueth is often so indéede that either modestie or feare or some one regarde or other may make an honest nature not aske so much as in déede he standeth in néede of manie a time therefore good reason a faithfull friend should haue respect to such an one aboue his asking euer Was not this a swéete nature then and a notable vertue in this man Or can anie man reade this of him and not loue and like him for it Great therefore is the praise of mercie and tender kindnesse euer By mercie we resemble God and prooue our selues his children For our heauenlie father is mercifull By mercie we become instruments and as it were amners to the Lorde to deliuer his gratious benefites to our brethren and euen verie equitie requireth it at our handes that if we finde mercie our selues in all our néedes with God wee shoulde not denie it in their wantes vnto our brethren For so saith the Lorde to that euill seruaunt in the Gospell that he should haue forgiuen because he was forgiuen himselfe and shewed kindnesse to his fellowe since he had founde it with the Lorde himselfe Last of all that fearefull threate of mercie euer to be denied to vs if we denie it our selues to others should strengthen and staie vs in this vertue for euermore Therefore looke not I say againe vpon mens acceptance of our dooings but looke vpon the vertue it selfe howe it adorneth a man howe it commendeth a man and howe it maketh his fame to flie both farre and néere in euerie place And looke vppon the sure rewarde that is promised to it by the Lorde If you be mercifull you shall be blessed if you bee mercifull you shall haue mercie if you bee mercifull you shalbe renowned you shall assure your soule that you are the Lordes because you resemble his nature and if you be not both God and man shall curse you Therefore be mercifull This may incourage vs and this will incourage vs certainely Frailtie if the Lorde be not quite departed from vs. But as it is néedful that this vertue should be in vs so is it as néedefull that it be rightly in vs for otherwise we deceiue our selues and wee shall misse the rewarde in the ende And therefore as I haue indeuored to stirre you vp vnto it so it shall not be vnprofitable per aduenture altogether if I also direct you a little in it Some then haue thought this vertue to haue béene deliuered in the verse before which we haue heard of vnder the name of méekenesse but in déede they differ much For méekenesse then is shewed when we our selues are wronged and yet reuenge not but put it vp and leaue it to the Lorde And mercie when wee our selues being no way hurt yet are touched and mooued with other mens wantes and euen suffring with them because they suffer indeuour ourselues to our abilitie to relieue and helpe them So that this vertue of mercy as you sée standeth of two partes to wit of a tender féeling and compassion within vs and of an outwarde louing helpe with our abilitie whatsoeuer it is without vs. The miserie of man is of two sorts and therefore also this mercifull pitie and helpe of as many For either a man wanteth what is néedefull for his soule or what is conuenient for his bodie And both of these doth a mercifull christian tender and pitie and helpe as he can Of the former we haue a proofe in the example of our sauiour Christ whose bowels euen yerned and heart aked to sée the spirituall miserie and want of that great multitude that then he sawe being destitute of knowledge and altogether as wandering shéepe without a sheapheard Of the seconde we haue a proofe also in the Samaritan whose mercifull nature sheweth it selfe towarde bodily wantes and outward griefes of him that théeues had so ill handled And in both these you sée the partes I spake of namelie inwarde compassion and outwarde helpe Without which neuer can this vertue stande nor wee be liked either of God or man For if we pitie and yet helpe not that feareful spéech of Iohn lighteth on vs Howe dwelleth the loue of God in vs and we shall assuredly heare it in the day of iudgement When I was naked yee clothed me not when I was hungrie yee fedde me not and so foorth And if we helpe a man in his néede and yet doe it not vppon anie tender compassion towarde him but vppon a iolitie and pride in our selues and vppon an imagination of merite for the worke sake or such like it is loothsome againe all that euer we doe to the Lorde and we loose our rewarde If you doubt of this you may sée it prooued in the Pharisies whose almes abounded made a glorious shewe But because they let the weightier matters passe as iudgement and Mercie and fidelitie their outwarde déedes had neuer reward Therefore euen a thousande times marke it howe want of right disposition in the heart maketh outwarde dealing of giftes be it neuer so magnificall but pharisaicall and wicked against that blockish assertion of some that the déede doone must néedes be rewarded This tender féeling doth the Apostle both professe in himselfe and require in others In himselfe when hee asketh who is weake and he is not weake who is offended and hee burneth not In others when be saith wéepe with them that wéepe and rebuketh the Corinthians for that they séeing so great a fall of their brother were puffed vp and did not rather sorrowe So well thus you sée what manner of mercie must be in you if it be allowed of the Lorde Nowe howe this good vertue is begotten in vs let vs also consider and beside diuers others that might be named you shall sée the workers of it especially and aboue other meanes to bee experience and sight For the first wee sée it in the wisedome of the Lorde our God most plainely who therefore gaue his owne sonne a sense of our woes that experience might make him a more mercifull readie and carefull regarder of our sutes It behooueth him saith the Apostle in all thinges to be made like to his brethren that hee might be a merciful and faithfull high Priest And againe We haue not an high Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but wee haue one that was in all things tempted in like sort yet without sin concluding thereupon presently Let vs therfore go boldlie to the throne of grace that wee may receiue mercie and grace to help in time of neede Why so Assuredlie because wee can neuer féele that want which he knoweth not and knowing experience worketh effectually a readie regarde and helpe Whereuppon by the way wee may grounde a great comfort against anie crosse if we marke it For thus may we thinke if mercifulnes make vs